The benefits from conserving and restoring seagrass meadows.



Despite a general global trend of seagrass loss, some areas have shown abating declines or substantial recovery of seagrasses. These recoveries can often be attributed to human interventions reducing the effect of human-caused stressors.

Seagrasses are critical for life underwater, but also provide wide-ranging benefits to people on land. Raising awareness about their importance for community well-being, whether through food security from fish production, improved quality of water filtered by seagrasses, protection of coasts from erosion, storms and floods, or carbon sequestration and storage will drive efforts around the world to conserve, better manage and restore these ecosystems.

Ultimately, the protection and restoration of seagrass meadows will help countries achieve multiple economic, societal and nutritional objectives, aligning with and supported by policies implemented at the national, regional or global levels. For example:The benefits from conserving and restoring seagrass meadows can also help countries achieve 26 targets and indicators associated with ten Sustainable Development Goals.

Given the carbon storage and sequestration capacity of seagrass ecosystems, including them in nationally determined contributions (NDCs) can help nations achieve their targets under the Paris Agreement and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Inclusion of seagrass ecosystems in the post-2020 global biodiversity framework and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is also critical for protecting the integrity of marine ecosystems and biodiversity.

The Restoration of seagrasses also provides countries with opportunities to achieve commitments to be made to the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration .

Inclusion of seagrass management, conservation and restoration should be a critical component of sustainable blue economy strategies in the future. Projects are already underway in various countries, and a few have even been selected as World Restoration Flagships initiatives. Chosen as best examples of large-scale and long-term ecosystem restoration, these projects embody the 10 restoration principles of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.

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